Senior Pastor Mark Stafford

The Strength of Single-Minded Faith

The Book of James was written to help us understand the purpose behind the various tests and trials we endure.

• Sometimes tests will reveal to us that we need Jesus. There are religious people who are not yet saved and their reaction to trials may reveal an unrepentant heart
• Sometimes tests reveal that we have an area in our lives that is not yet totally submitted to the Lord. That weakness is making us unstable and the Lord wants to make us strong!

There is a man who is listed in the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11 who, at one time, became unstable because of lingering sin.  That man was named Samson.  Let me tell you two important facts about Samson:

Two Facts about Samson

#1 Samson was a Nazarite – Numbers 6, Judges 13:5,7

Being a Nazarite was different from being a Nazarene, so don’t get the terms confused!  The Nazarite vow is outlined in Numbers 6.  Individuals in the Old Testament times would sometimes submit to a Nazarite vow as a show of gratitude for an answered prayer.

The vow included abstaining from all alcohol or anything remotely connected with the production of alcohol, including the consumption of raisins or grapes.  Nazarites were forbidden from touching a dead body, even that of a family member, and they set themselves apart to be “holy unto the Lord.”[1]  The outward sign of their devotion to the Lord was long hair.  They intentionally let their hair and beards grow really long so everyone would know that they have taken a Nazarite vow.

The vow was usually taken for just a short period of time.  In Samson’s case, his mother was barren and Samson was conceived through God miraculously intervening.  God asked her to put Samson under a Nazarite vow from birth.  Samson’s vow was for life.  From the day Samson was born, God had big plans for his life.

He was chosen from birth to “begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”[2]  The Philistines where non-Jewish people who lived in Palestine and were the enemies of Israel at the time.

#2 Samson had a history of getting involved with the wrong women – Judges 14-16

In Judges 14, Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman against the wishes of his parents and against the law of God.  The man God chose to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines, fell in love and pursued a relationship with a Philistine women.

When Samson tried to marry her things really fell apart.  The Philistines killed his fiancé and her father.  Samson ended up killing 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey and burned down many Philistine farms.  After this incident transpired, Samson seems to have settled down and turned back to the Lord.  He faithfully served as a judge over Israel for the next 20 years.  He devoted his life to the Lord and his long hair was a sign of his devotion.

At the end of that 20 years, Samson fell prey once again to this area of instability in his life.  First, he goes to Gaza and meets up with a prostitute.  Then he travels north to the Valley of Sorek and connects with a woman named Delilah.  His weakness with women is about to tear his whole life apart – just like it did years before.  Let’s pick up the story in Judges 16:4.

⁴ After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

The Bible does not give us much information about the background of Delilah.  We do know that this is at least the third time Samson has been in a forbidden relationship with a woman.  Although the Bible does not spell out exactly who she was, Delilah was a common name for a Philistine temple prostitute.  She was the kind of woman who an Israelite judge like Samson had absolutely no business with!

The Philistines sought to exploit Samson’s weakness and began to devise a plan to use Delilah to capture Samson.

⁵ And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”

1,100 pieces of silver was a huge amount of money.  It would be the modern equivalent of thousands and thousands of dollars, perhaps a small fortune.  Delilah likes the offer so she attempts to get Samson to share his secrets.

⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.”

⁷ Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ⁸ Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.⁹ Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound.”

There is an old idiom that says, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”  I’m not sure why Samson fell for Delilah’s tricks a second time, but she clearly had a grip on him that made him blind to the reality of his situation.

¹¹ And he said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ¹² So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

Delilah must have really captured Samson’s affections because now she tries to trick him a third time!

¹³ Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.”

Samson had never cut his hair.  It would have been very long and, apparently, he wore it in seven braids.

¹⁴ So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

Each one of her attempts to learn the truth fail miserably, but she has managed to wear Samson down.  She is very persuasive.  Delilah has a small fortune to gain from Samson’s deception, so she keeps pushing. She is relentless.  At this point, he’s about to break under the manipulation she applies.

¹⁵ And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” ¹⁶ And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. ¹⁷ And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.”

Here Samson revealed to Delilah that he is a Nazarite.  His strength came from his unique calling and relationship with God.  He expressed his devotion to the Lord through a life-long Nazarite pledge.  Even though Samson obviously had a tendency to stumble into sin, his long hair was a sign of his overall dedication to God.  God granted him great strength because of that devoutness.

Samson’s strength was not in his hair.  His strength came from the Lord and from his commitments to the Lord.  However, cutting his hair would be the ultimate manifestation of his disloyalty to his calling and disobedience to his God.  The moment he cut his hair, and ended his Nazarite vow, he could no longer expect to receive supernatural strength from the Lord.

¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. ¹⁹ She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.²⁰ And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. ²¹ And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison.

I had always seen Samson grinding at the mill depicted like this: 

It is interesting to note that the use of an animal-driven grain mill with large stones was not known to exist during this period of history.  In fact, if Samson had lost all his strength, then it would have been impossible for him to have turned a giant mill like the one in the picture.

It was more likely that the mill spoken of here was a small hand-mill that was typically used by women.

• Here is what a typical Saddle Quern looked like from that era: 
• Here is a philistine saddle quern being excavated:
• 
• Here is a picture of how women would typically use the mill: 

The labor with the mill was meant to be an insult.  The strongman and super-soldier of Israel was stripped of his strength and robbed of his sight.  He was then forced to live out his days doing a task designated in that culture for women in the kitchen.

As Samson labored at the mill, he returned once again to his Nazarite vow.  Verse 22 says, “²² But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.”  As he committed his life back to the Lord, the Lord began to renew his strength.  The Lord had one last task for Samson to complete as the man who was chosen from birth to “begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

The event happened, ironically, at a gathering to worship the grain god named Dagon.

²³ Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” ²⁴ And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.” ²⁵ And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. ²⁶ And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.”²⁷ Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained.

The Philistine temple was typically a long chamber with two major pillars in the middle that supported the roof.

• This is a drawing of a Philistine temple archeologists found in 1972 (Tell Qasile Temple). Notice the supporting columns in the middle of the room. 
• Here is the excavated remains of those pillars in that temple. 

We don’t know if this is the same temple, but if Samson wasn’t in this temple, he was in one just like it.  If 3,000 people were in a temple like this one, it would have been packed full – shoulder to shoulder.

²⁸ Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹ And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.

³⁰ And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.

God granted Samson his final prayer and one last time, Samson’s great strength returned.  In one fell swoop, Samson eliminated the Philistine leadership.  This was a major setback for the Philistines and a turning point in the conflict with Israel.  From this point forward, the Israelites started to gain the upper hand.

Samson was an example of a double-minded man.  He was devout and had great faith in many areas of his life but when it came to women, he rejected God’s wisdom and followed his own desires.  His faith faltered.  He lost his position of influence because he succumbed to the temptation of his flesh and didn’t fully rely on God’s wisdom.

Our text today is James 1:5-8.  James writes, “⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Faith is a prerequisite for acting on God’s wisdom – James 1:6-8

Last week we defined faith as “Trusting God to fulfill His promises.”  Verse 6 indicates that we need faith in order to receive God’s wisdom.

• When people begin to take matters into their own hands and follow the world’s advice, it is proof that their faith is faltering. Faltering faith does not act wisely.
• When people doubt that God will really do what He promises to do, it is a failure of faith in that they don’t believe that God is able to follow through with His promises.

Faith is “Trusting God to fulfill His promises.” James is saying here that when a person believes and acts on some of God’s promises, but not on others, it creates instability.  It is a lack of faith.

In Samson’s case, he was devoted to the Lord in many areas in his life, but there were a couple of instances where he took matters into his own hands.  Doublemindedness made the life of this otherwise devout man unstable.

James’ seafaring example is a graphic illustration of the futility of doubt.  The last part of verse 6 says, “for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”  When our lives are tossed and driven by the Lord some time and then tossed and driven back by the world other times, we find ourselves on a wild ride to nowhere.

James describes this kind of tossed up life in verse 8.  It says, “⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”  Imagine that you are on a journey leaving from Topeka Kansas.  Can you start driving to New York and LA at the same time? Of course not; the destinations are conflicting.

“Double-minded” can be literally translated as “two-souled.”  It depicts a man trying to travel in opposite directions.  He is trying to follow the wisdom of the Lord and trying to follow the wisdom of the world at the same time.  These systems are not compatible.  Each system takes a person in a completely different direction.  So, trying to follow both systems at the same time leads to instability and a rocky ride to nowhere.

Some conservative Bible teachers teach that the “double-minded man” is referring to an unbeliever.  They say the double-minded person might think they are right with God, but they prove they are not right with God by the decisions they make in real life.  That could be the case in some instances.

Instability could come from a lack of saving faith – James 1:6

It is absolutely true that many unbelievers are double-minded.  They are drifting and being tossed by every fad and philosophy our world comes up with.  If someone is consistently rejecting the Lord’s instructions and following the way of the world, their salvation is truly in question

On the other hand, I don’t think James is only referring to non-believers.  Every Christian I know has at least a couple of areas where they struggle.  We are all double-minded in one way or another.  I could have 25 areas in total submission to the Lord’s control, but in my life there are still a few places where the pull of this fallen world is very strong.  Sometimes I find that my affections are divided.

Instability could be the result of a divided soul – Romans 7:22-24, Hebrews 11:6, James 1:6

The struggle with doublemindedness lead Paul to cry out in Romans 7,

“ ²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³ but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

On one hand, Paul loved God’s law and saw the tremendous benefits from following it.  On the other hand, he was still struggling with his own flesh.  I think we can all relate to this struggle.  James’ description of a man bobbing around like a boat on a raging sea is true of many of us in the church who are in the process of sanctification:

• We have received eternal life
• We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit
• BUT, we sometime ignore God’s instructions. We think God’s way doesn’t apply to us.  Or we think that our way sounds like a better way than God’s way.

Certainly Samson thought the enjoyment he found with his relationship with Delilah was worth the consequences.  Trying to do things a different way than God’s way is not faith, but doubt.  Faith believes and acts on God’s promises.  The writer of Hebrew put it this way, “…without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”[3]

Faith fully trusts that the immense, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise, holy God of the scriptures will not lead us astray.  Faith believes God and acts on it.  Let me give you three ways to identify doublemindedness in your own life:

Application:

Identifying Doublemindedness

#1 Are there two major influences that are competing to control your thought life?

A double minded person is always being pulled in two directions.  They may have a relationship with Jesus, but they also have a relationship with a sinful obsession and the obsession distracts them from being fully surrendered to the Lord.

Samson was set apart and devoted in many areas, but he was never going to fully surrender to the Lord’s control as long as he continued to enter into wrong relationships

A person who has one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world will soon discover that they are tossed to and fro but never seem to be going anywhere.  They may be saved, but they will continue to be miserable until they repent and turn away from those competing influences.

#2 Do you find yourself compromising your thought life in one area?

Satan has been tempting people for centuries.  He’s really good at it!  He knew just how to trip up Samson and he also know how to trip you up!  His variety of enticements often lead believers into a double-minded existence.

Satan hates to see believers fully surrendered to the Lord.  Satan know that when people totally surrender to God with a single-minded devotion, God works powerfully through that person.  He will do everything in his power to stop you from living whole-heartedly for Jesus

Think of what Samson could have accomplished had he not given into the temptation with Delilah!  Think of what you could do for the Lord if you gain victory over the area you struggle with!

#3 Do you give into old habits easily?

A double minded person finds it difficult to stay away from the danger zones in their lives.  They flirt with the things that tempt them the most and tend to run to those things when times get tough instead of running to the Lord.

The longer you stay away from the things that pull you into sin, they less tempting they become.  If you can put some distance between yourself and your temptations, those temptations have a much more difficult time grabbing a hold of you and pulling you back down.

Samson moved in with Delilah when he should have stayed far away from her.  Had he put a healthy distance between himself and his temptations, he would have never found himself in that compromising position!

Is the Lord demanding perfect faith?  Is He insisting they we never falter?  I don’t think so.  The Lord knows that we’ll struggle.  Here are a few thoughts about how we can overcome doublemindedness when it springs up in our lives.

Combating Doublemindedness – James 4:7-9

Turn a couple page over to James 4:7-9.  James is once again addressing the double-minded man.  Here he says, “ ⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

Samson is our example of a man who humbled himself, mourned over his sin and recommitted his ways to the Lord.  In other words, his sin caused him to repent or to turn the other way.

• If you are a Christian and struggling with doubting God in some areas of your life, God’s Word calls you to repent and trust God again.
• If you are realizing that you are not a Christian and following the world’s wisdom instead of God’s wisdom, God’s word call you also to repent and trust God with your salvation

Either way, single-minded faith in God is restored through repentance.

[1] Numbers 6:8

[2] Judges 13:5b

[3] Hebrews 11:6